Prisoners Release

Edward Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners who were released under the End of Custody Licence on 29 June 2007 and 2 July 2007 had previously been refused parole or release on home detention curfew.

David Hanson: Parole applies to prisoners serving sentences of four years or more. Prisoners are eligible for consideration for End of Custody Licence if they have been sentenced to less than four years. No prisoner released under End of Custody Licence would have previously been refused parole during their current sentence.
	Of the 1,390 prisoners release under End of Custody Licence on 29 June 2007 and 2 July 2007, 951 have previously been refused release on home detention curfew.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.